How It Works
by HerRenegadeHeart
Summary: Bruised and battered, the Danvers sisters go home to Kara's apartment to decompress after the fight with Red Tornado. (Missing scene from 1x06 - Red Faced)


_Author's Notes:_ This is just a little missing scene from episode 1x06 - "Red Faced". It's set the evening after the fight with Red Tornado and Morrow, but before Kara and Winn reveal to Alex what they found out about Jeremiah Danvers and Henshaw the next day.

* * *

The two sisters stepped through the door of Kara's apartment, haggard, distrait, and in Alex's case, limping slightly. The average day spent saving the city was no joke, but Red Tornado had been something else entirely.

"I'll get you some ice," Kara murmured as she broke off from Alex and headed toward the fridge.

"I hate you," Alex grumbled with no heat.

Kara smiled just a bit, too tired to grin. "I know."

As she pulled a couple handfuls of ice from the freezer, dumped them into a Ziploc baggy, and wrapped it in a dish towel, she watched as her older sister moved stiffly across the apartment, her trajectory taking her past the couch and toward the bed. _Ah_ , Kara thought. It was going to be one of those nights.

It was unusual (though not _completely_ unheard of) for Alex to give up all pretenses of being the strong, assiduous, self-possessed, always-has-it-together big sister. It was when she was too exhausted to maintain the front that she usually let it drop, which, Kara realized, she had perfect reason to do tonight.

It was nights like tonight when Kara knew even the thought of something simple, like driving home, seemed a monumental task to her sister. Just existing was more than enough.

It was nights like tonight when Alex would just stay over.

They'd made plans to have dinner together, that was the original reason why they hadn't parted ways as soon as work was over, but it was after they'd both returned to headquarters and had seen each other's slumped shoulders and weary eyes that they'd decided dinner would have be done at home and at whoever's apartment was closer — Kara's.

By the time Kara had the ice ready and made her way over to the bed, Alex had sprawled out on the left side and was lying on her back with her arm across her face. "Where do you want it?" she asked.

"Knee," Alex mumbled, "Wait, no." She lifted the arm from her eyes and frowned down at her own body. "Ribs. No. Shoulder. …Just— everywhere." She snorted out an irritated puff of air and dropped her arm back over her eyes. "Have I mentioned I hate you?"

Kara smiled affectionately down at her grumpy sister. "Yes, several times." It wasn't an unusual thing to hear from Alex when it came to the advantages of Kara's Kryptonian genes —it was a running joke they'd had going since they were kids. She didn't mean it, of course, and Kara also knew that despite her sister's grumblings about Kryptonians being better, Alex fully understood just how difficult, how isolating, it sometimes was for Kara to be what she was.

"Here." She leaned down and gently placed the wrapped ice across the knee Alex had been favoring, eliciting a hiss from the brunette. "Sorry," she whispered sympathetically. She had caught snippets of Alex's fight with Dr. Morrow over the comms and it had sounded brutal. She was just glad Alex wasn't in worse shape than she was.

"I'll get you more ice for your shoulder and ribs, and I'll get the Advil, too." She never had need of it herself, but she always kept some around for Alex, just in case.

Kara padded slowly back out to the kitchen, feeling weary to the bone. She honestly couldn't remember ever feeling quite so… drained before. It was a very bizarre sensation.

 _Maybe if I eat something…_ She always felt better once she'd eaten. It wasn't quite like refueling her cells with solar energy, but it still helped.

And that reminded her. "Hey Alex, what do you want for dinner?" she called back as she prepared two more packs of ice.

"Advil," came the reply. "Just Advil."

Kara rolled her eyes, grabbing the pills from the drawer next to the fridge. "That's not how this works," she said, returning to her sister's side. She pressed one lot of ice gingerly to Alex's ribs before slipping the third pack just under her shoulder. She held up the bottle of Advil for Alex to see. "Tell me what you want to eat and then I will provide you with further pain relief. That is the deal."

Alex lowered her arm from her face, dropping it to her side, and frowned at Kara. "You would do that to me? Withhold medical treatment in order to get what you want?"

Kara was unfazed. "Yep."

"You do realize that's considered torture, right?"

"Do I need to get out the Eliza voice?"

Alex's eyes widened. "You wouldn't."

" _Alex—_ "

"Don't do it."

" _—andra._ "

Alex gasped and narrowed her eyes. "You're such a brat," she said.

Kara chuckled and sat down beside Alex on the free side of the bed. "Please just pick?" she asked. "Or if you prefer I could just cook something? I think I have some—"

Alex made a face, cutting Kara off, "Uh, no. Just because you can flash fry a turkey with your eyeballs doesn't mean you have any actual cooking abilities."

"Hey now, I am more than capable of—"

"Kara."

"What? It's not like—"

" _Kara_."

" _What_?"

Alex gave her a deadpan look. "Do you remember the last time you tried to bake?"

There was a pause. "…To be fair, baking is totally different than—"

" _Do you remember_?"

Kara frowned. "…Yes. But I only missed one step! It wasn't that big of a deal."

"You forgot the flour, Kara. _The flour_. Of all things."

Huffing, Kara flopped back into the pillows and stared at the ceiling. "Yes. Fine. Okay. Cooking is not in my wheelhouse." A moment later she rolled onto her side, facing Alex, and propped herself up on her elbow. "Miako's? Su Casa? Giovanni's?… Pizza Hut?"

Alex cocked an eyebrow to which Kara pointed a finger and said, "No judging."

Alex held up her hands in surrender. "Not saying a word."

"Good. So? Food?"

"I don't know, Kara," Alex sighed. "I'm just exhausted and it all sounds like too much of a hassle."

"They all deliver," Kara pointed out.

"Even so."

Kara understood. Even with delivery, it still meant interacting with the people on the phone (if they didn't have a website) and the delivery guy and when you felt as out of it as she felt and Alex looked, well, it was just… a hassle. Even going herself to pick up food (which would take considerably less time than waiting for a delivery guy) was far from appealing.

Sucking in a breath, she took a moment to consider. "Well, I have… cereal?" she offered. "No cooking involved."

This seemed to catch Alex's attention as she perked up a little, but then she squinted a suspicious eye. "…What kind of cereal?"

"Cap'n Crunch."

"Regular or—"

"Crunch Berries," Kara replied, a grin slowly lighting up her face. "I even remembered to get milk."

A matching grin spread across Alex's lips and she gave a nod.

With a laugh, Kara got back up and headed to retrieve the sugary dinner, returning only when she had everything they were going to need in hand. Once all promises not to "tell Mom" were made (as Eliza had always been against sugar-filled breakfast cereals), they dug in.

Twenty-or-so minutes and a full box of Crunch Berries consumed (and some Advil for Alex, too, of course), the two of them returned to their previous positions sprawled out beside each other on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

They were silent, both lost in their own thoughts, until Kara finally rolled onto her side again to face Alex. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm?" Alex said distractedly. She looked over at Kara. "Yeah, fine. With the ice and the Advil, I'll be good by morning."

Kara chewed her bottom lip for a beat. "I wasn't— …That's not what I was asking about. Or not _just_ that."

"Then what—" But before she could finish the question, a look of realization passed over Alex's face. "Oh. You mean Morrow."

Kara nodded, her brow furrowing in concern upon catching a brief glimpse of sorrow and remorse flittering across her sister's face before Alex composed herself and looked back up at the ceiling once more. Kara didn't press, just letting Alex take the time to process and choose what she wanted to say, if anything.

"It's not an easy thing," she said eventually, slowly, her forehead creasing slightly, "killing someone…"

The way she said it made Kara's heart ache. Her tone was heavy and far away. It was as if she wasn't even talking about Morrow, but thinking back on something else.

Kara knew she shouldn't ask, but this was her sister. There was a weight to her words and in the air around her, on her shoulders and written across her face. It was a burden she had no doubt carried silently with her for God only knew how long. "Morrow wasn't…?"

Alex glanced at her. "My first?" Kara nodded cautiously, knowing these were precarious waters. Alex shook her head and again returned her gaze upward. "No," she replied, "no, he wasn't the first."

Kara felt tears suddenly begin to burn the back of her eyes. When she looked at Alex, she saw the kind-hearted girl who had climbed under the table to comfort the silly alien who'd been afraid of popcorn and to think that that same girl had been made to go against her gentle nature, had been made to take the lives of other people… it just broke Kara's heart. And to make it worse, Alex had been forced to keep it a secret just as she'd been made to keep her status as a DEO agent a secret. How long had she been carrying this weight with her unable to share with anyone else? "I'm sorry, Alex," Kara whispered. "You should never have—"

"It's my job."

Kara sucked in a breath at the biting edge to her sister's words.

Alex turned her head back toward Kara, expression softening when she saw the clear misery on Kara's face. "It's my job," she repeated more gently, "and taking out Morrow? It was the right call. He had to be stopped."

"I know…" Kara sighed and scooted a little bit closer, her hand slipping into Alex's. "I just… I wish you… that it hadn't… that you…"

Alex nodded. "I wish I hadn't had to be the one to do it either …but at the same time…"

Kara heard what her sister was saying even in the silence of the hanging words. "You were protecting me."

Alex squeezed Kara's hand and whispered, "Always."

There was a pang of guilt that sliced painfully through Kara's chest in that moment. _Always_. Ever since they were kids, she'd brushed off Alex's anxiety when it came to Eliza not thinking she'd done enough to keep Kara safe as nothing more than an endearing quirk, but now she realized it was _so_ much more. Sure, it had started out with her sister just doing what her mom wanted, but that anxiety had morphed into something powerful, a steely determination that allowed her to do what she did now. It had morphed into a cold resolve to protect Kara at _all cost…_

 _…_ Even the cost of her own heart.

The thought made Kara feel nauseous, a sensation she didn't experience all that often. Even with that resolve, she knew that Alex wasn't unaffected by what she had to do… _had done_. Kara had seen it just now when she'd asked, the paleness in her sister's cheeks and the pain she tried to keep locked away behind her warm brown eyes. And all of it —the anxiety, the turmoil, the silent suffering— it had all been born from a need to keep Kara safe.

"Hey, don't do that."

Kara blinked, bringing herself out of her head and focusing on Alex again. "What?"

"Don't put this on yourself. Don't make this, make his death your fault. Because it isn't."

Sighing, Kara shook her head. "But I put you in that position, forced you to have to make that choice—"

"Kara, there was no choice."

"Alex—"

The older Danver sister pushed herself stiffly up onto her elbow and leaned over Kara, looking her right in the eye. "No, look," she said, "there was _no choice_. Morrow was so consumed by his work that he allowed himself to be driven mad by it. He'd already hurt people and no doubt would have hurt more, but beyond that, he was hurting _you,_ Kara. He built that thing specifically for people like you, to be able kill you, and he was using it in an attempt to do just that. He had to be stopped."

Alex took a breath and continued, vehement tone softening just a bit, "But that _does not_ put this on you. Not one bit of it. It's all on him. He made his own choices and he lost. End of story."

A silence rang out in the apartment and the pair just stared at one another for what seemed near an eternity before Kara reached up and pulled Alex down on top of her, hugging her fiercely (but not too tightly, of course.) "It doesn't put it on you either," she whispered into her sister's ear.

There was a beat, then she felt it, the moment Alex broke.

There was a slight hiccup from Alex and Kara heard a sniffle. Posture sagging, her sister ducked her head forward into the crook of Kara's neck and nodded. Kara fought to hold back her own tears and lost. "You saved me," she murmured to Alex through her sorrow, "You saved me."

They stayed that way for a while, just holding on to one another, being there for one another, before Alex finally gave one last sniff and rolled sideways off of Kara, sitting up. She hastily wiped the tears from her cheeks with one hand and offered Kara a small, sheepish smile.

Kara followed her upward into a sitting position and turned slightly so they were facing one another, curling her legs up to the side and pulling them close. She smiled back. "Thank you," she said, her voice hoarse with emotion, "Not just for saving me from Morrow and his machine, but for every other time you've saved me, big and small."

Alex shrugged. "Well… you're my sister. For you, I'd do anything."

Her statement momentarily stole the breath from Kara's lungs. They had been sisters for years now, but she still couldn't get over how very much Alex's acceptance meant to her. "And I love you for it," she breathed out. "I worry for you, too. A lot. But mostly I just love you."

Alex smiled again, reaching forward and squeezing Kara's hand. "I love you, too," she said. "And because I do, well, if you insist on being a superhero, you'll just have to get used to having me has your bodyguard. You protect the world and I protect you. That's how it works."

Unable to help herself, Kara leaned forward and hugged Alex again. She realized in that moment that Alex truly had been her protector since the very first moment they had met all those years ago, but she also realized that her sister was much more than just her _body_ guard. Alex kept watch over Kara's mind and more importantly, her heart as well. Alex kept her alive, kept her stable, kept her full of hope. She made sure Kara never went a day without having love in her life.

Was the idea of Alex now putting her life on the line for Kara a terrifying one? God, yes. It was _definitely_ going to take some getting used to and Kara was always going to worry about her sister, but still, she believed in Alex and well…

"That's how it works," she agreed.

* * *

 _A/N's:_ Hope you enjoyed! I will admit some of this story was stolen from my own life, namely Kara's inability to bake. Who forgot the flour when baking cookies? Yep, that would be me. Skills.

ALSO, I have been fiddling around with making Supergirl fanvids as well! I have one up ("Supergirl | So Far" by HerRenegadeHeart - youtu DOT be / u_SmIf9yVV4) and I have a couple more in the works! If you're bored, you should check em out!

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